Re: [GZG] [FT] Graser-1s again

[Oerjan Ariander <oerjan.ariander@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hugh Fisher wrote:

> > I don't agree with your point about short range ships being able to close 
> > the range. If the longer range ships only pack on front ark weapons and 
> > the way you play has to two fleets line up and charge at the enemy (We 
> > have some players that like to do this) you get a very "fighter pilot" 
> > style game. That works until someone designs their escorts with 4 beam 2s 
> > in all arc turrets. On a rolling table (unlimited space to play on) 2 
> > ships of equal thrust can maintain a range band of 6" quite easily. The 
> > shorter ranges ship then has to rush at the enemy ship that than turns 
> > away and then keeps shooting over their shoulder for a number of turns. 
> > If the Grazer ship breaks off or slows down the longer ranged ship can 
> > again turn in to close the range to the edge of the envelope.
>
> Doesn't work if you're (standard) ESU or NSL light ships against UNSC.

It doesn't work *indefinitely*, but at least against the standard UNSC 
destroyers you don't need very long before you start thresholding them. 
Volgas are better at this sort of tactic than Warsaws or Waldburgs though, 
thanks to their all-arc batteries.

> Or if your ships are guarding a space station, asteroid
> mining installation, or navigation warp buoy.
>
> Or if your ships are escorting slower merchants.
>
> Or if your lights are supposed to be watching the flanks
> and rear of a battleship squadron heading towards the
> enemy.

If you are defending a fixed or slow-moving target, you need to go out and 
meet the enemy before he gets to close to whatever you are protecting. As 
Luftwaffe, RAF, USAAF, RN and many others learned this the hard way during 
WW2, escorts that stick too close to their charges usually fail - and this 
is just as true in FT as it was historically.

> Presumably the playtest group and/or keepers of the AARs
> can produce some stats about what percentage of turns in
> FT battles are spent at various range bands?

I can produce stats about what percentage of various weapon types' shots 
were fired at enemy ships in what 12-mu range band during the recorded 
Cinematic playtest battles, and also what percentage of the turns during 
which ships were within range of the longest-ranged weapon on the table 
that the respective weapon types actually did fire (the "Shots/turn" 
column) - though note that weapons that had been destroyed were no 
longer  counted, which means that if a weapon usually is destroyed after 
firing a single shot its "Shots/turn" rating will get quite inflated.

Weapon: Range band:             Shots/turn:
                0-12    12-24   24-36
B3-3            37%     37%     25%     0.69
B2-6            37%     63%     -       0.60
B2-3            39%     61%     -       0.46
B1-6*           88%     -       -       0.32
P-torp-3**      66%     21%     13%     0.58
P-torp-1***     31%     46%     23%     0.48

G2-1**  -       25%     75%     0.51
G1-6**  61%     39%     -       0.42
G1-3**  53%     47%     -       0.34
G1-1**  42%     58%     -       0.18

Pulser-L-6*     23%     47%     30%     0.92
Pulser-L-3*     25%     38%     32%     0.58
Pulser-L-1*     17%     40%     37%     0.41
Pulser-M-6*     21%     75%     -       0.60
Pulser-M-3*     34%     62%     -       0.45
Pulser-M-1*     20%     80%     -       0.15
Pulser-C-6*     78%     -       -       0.31
Pulser-C-3*     82%     -       -       0.21
Pulser-C-1*     83%     -       -       0.06

K1-6*           26%     54%     18%     0.77
K2+-1****       31%     45%     23%     0.45

* These weapons are PD-capable. PD shots are counted in the "shots/turn" 
column, but NOT in the "0-12" column (which is why these weapons don't add 
up to 100% anti-ship shots).

** These weapons were only used in a small number of playtest battles, so 
their stats are far more uncertain than for the other weapon types.

*** This "Shots/turn" value is inflated by an unfortunate tendency of NAC 
warships to be destroyed after firing a single P-torp shot (thus earning 
them single-battle "Shots/turn" ratings of 0.75 or more). In the few 
battles where NAC P-torp-armed ships survived long enough to fire more than 
one shot each, they usually only scored around 0.33 shots/turn.

**** This "Shots/turn" value is *not* inflated by early destruction of the 
weapons involved; and the results from individual battles are much more 
consistent than for the single-arc P-torps - but the *averaged* results for 
the P-torps and the larger K-guns are remarkably similar, aren't they...

*****************************************************
What these stats show is that in the (few) recorded playtest battles 
featuring them, even those G1s that survived long enough to fire at all 
fired considerably fewer shots per turn than B2 or Pulser-M batteries with 
the same number of fire arcs - and they also fired a much higher percentage 
of their shots at range 0-12 rather than at range 12-24. (What the stats 
*don't* show are the number of G1s that were destroyed by longer-ranged 
before they got to fire even a single shot.)

It would be very interesting to see corresponding stats from your battles - 
I suspect that you'd get quite a lot more close-range shots even from the 
B2s and longer-ranged weapons.

Regards,

Oerjan
oerjan.ariander@xxxxxxxxx

"Life is like a sewer.
 What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
-Hen3ry

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